Summary: The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), comprising no scientists, rules in favour of software patents and thus endorses a $290 million fine, affecting OOXML
AS PROMISED, this is a standalone post about the i4i ruling at the SCOTUS.
So the news is just about everywhere, especially in the Canadian press (because i4i is a Canadian company). The SCOTUS
ruled against Microsoft as we
mentioned earlier.
King of the trolls, Microsoft, suffers from a verdict which is good news for patent trolls. The
i4i case is not about patent trolls (in fact, i4i does have products), but the consequence of it is that rogue patents get legitimacy from the incompetent and at times technically-illiterate SCOTUS (they went to law school many decades ago). The SCOTUS is against fundamental principles that legalese experts rarely grasp and it neglects the people's interests, too, not just technologists'. It
helps monopolists under the assumption that their disinformation campaigns actually bear truths.
About Microsoft losing the case, Rui Seabra
says that "being a patent aggressor themselves, they kind of deserve it, however... SCOTUS validating #swpat is definitely not good." As pointed out by
the other side of this debate (patent lawyer Mike Wokasch):
Prediction: Breyer's concurrence, (w/ Alito & Scalia) re:role of courts, becomes important fodder for the anti-#swpat crowd. #patents #i4i
A FOSS respective on this case can be found in
Groklaw, which calls it
a "Disappointing Supreme Court decision". This was covered by
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols and
Joe Brockmeier too. They explain the relevance to FOSS.
Here is the
official decision [PDF] and other news coverage below. The success of Free software is hinged upon eradication of software patents because they impede dissemination.
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